Category: Switzerland

Can you guess from which age a child can legally purchase cigarettes in Geneva? 15 years? 18 years? Perhaps even older? I bet not many of you would have guessed that a child can buy tobacco here as… Read More

Did you know that the Swiss have rules that restrict many activities that most of us would find totally normal? The Swiss apartment rules are particularly strict, so we’ve always been thankful that we live in the countryside with no… Read More

One of the great things about living in Geneva is the short distance to the Alps. Even before we bought our 1973 MGB Roadster last year, we loved driving the windy Alpine pass roads, through Switzerland, France and… Read More

One of the most important issues when expats move to a new country is schooling. You can out up with a less than stunning kitchen (and you often have to here) or a slightly boring social life but… Read More

When we moved to Geneva, one of the things that I found most difficult was finding ingredients for baking in Switzerland. I was used to the issues with baking powder and baking soda, not to mention finding self-raising… Read More

Not long ago I wrote a light-hearted post about our Nuclear Bunker. Who would have thought that not even 4 months later, I would be envied for my bunker. And not in a joking “ha, isn’t that a cool… Read More

The Chateaux de Chillon, near Montreaux is, according to their website, the most visited historical monument in Switzerland. The weather was sadly not great today, cloudy and overcast so the pictures are not as stunning as they could have… Read More

Want to come into my cellar and see my nuclear bunker? That’s quite some chat-up line, right? Not so much here, since the Swiss nuclear bunker is just a part of life here, and everyone has one…. Read More

That when we were young, almost everyone walked to school. I can’t remember any school friend being driven to school, even one friend who lived quite far away walked. Today, when doing the Swiss school run, I had… Read More

We headed to Montreux today to take my parents to the train. They were traveling with the Goldenpass Express to Gstaad then onwards to Bern. The children and I took the opportunity to wander around the Christmas Market… Read More

The Swiss have a unique voting system called direct (or half direct) democracy. This means that basically any Swiss citizen can propose a change to a law. Around four times a year votes are cast on local and… Read More

A pretty good combination, if you ask me. A couple of weeks ago we went to the Morges British Classic Car Meeting. It is an annual event, attracting over 1500 cars and motorbike and over 20 000 visitors…. Read More

The Swiss are famous for many things, chocolate and watches, banks and tunnels. Tunnels? Well, yes. Switzerland has over 40 road tunnels over 2km length, with 11 more tunnels either planned or already being built. It is not… Read More

It has been ten years since the landslide in Gondo, that cost 13 villagers their lives, and destroyed a third of the Alpine village. Gondo is a small town, close to the Simplon Pass, right on the border… Read More

The summer months are long for a ski resort, and many of them are ghost towns at the moment. Particularly in the months directly before and after the ski season, there is nothing at all to do. Most… Read More

I have been experimenting recently with the settings on my camera. Until now I have let the camera do the work for me but wanted to teach myself how to use the manual settings to get – hopefully… Read More

What an adventure I had on Thursday! After the school run I returned home to the sound of a bird squawking in distress. It was so loud that I thought that somehow our dog Daphne had caught a… Read More

At the school gate today, I complained to one of the locals about the cold weather we are injuring at the moment. After several weeks of balmy Spring days it was quite a shock to have to put… Read More

I don’t think that I have blogged about La Bise, the bitingly cold Northwind that whistles down Lake Geneva from the Alps. Probably because if La Bise is blowing, my fingers are too cold to type. Anticyclones (whatever… Read More

Am currently sitting by the lake watching DS and his friend play while their sisters are at football practice. I was feeling smug as I felt the gentle rays of the sun on my face, listened to the… Read More

This is a picture of Daphne and her sister, Holly. They are from two different litters, born a year apart and are quite different in temperament. Daphne is more outgoing and friendly while Holly tends to be more… Read More

Lausanne is an interesting city, the old town is perched on the top of several hills, there are bridges and walkways connecting the different areas of the city. It is slightly confusing at first but once we had… Read More

Today we headed over to France to Santa Claus’s house, Le hameau du Père Noel after a tip from a friend. It was well worth the trip, a truly magical house filled to the brim with interesting things… Read More

This was taken down in the village, early evening. I love the colours in this picture. We were down at the Salle Communale for the village celebrations of the Escalade. The football club had invited the children and… Read More